Many libertarians and conservatives on this site are for the gold standard. On this issue, on this site, I am the loner conservative standing opposed. The question: is the gold standard friend, or foe?

The gold standard has more disadvantages then advantages. [1] Only 142,000 metric tons of gold have been mined, this is not enough for any significant monetary value. [1, 2, 3] Also the Gold standard is unequal in production in countries therefore will encourage mining in other countries: now instead of energy dependance we have money dependency. [1, 4] China (our competitor) mines the most gold. [5] Yep sour your helping other countries.

How about growth? Doesn't the gold standard boom the economy? The gold standard actually restricts growth, like a cap on maximum growth. [1, 6] When the economy grows it is customary to increase money supply. We cannot do this with a gold standard as fast restricting its growth. [6]

Wouldn't constituting the money supply reduce inflation, and therefore less money = better economy? Actually economists think economic downturns may be caused by lack of money supply. [7] The amount of money woudl be dictated on the supply of gold. [1] Wait is this bad? Yes as a very small amount of increased money supply is good in bad economic times. [8] This reason actually is attributed to the great depression and worsened it. [9] Unless more gold is mined the economy CANT GROW. [10]

The gold standard creates deflationary motions. This is why the eat depression lasted so long. [11] Now lets diverge into my opinion on deflation. A strong dollar is generally good. A small amount of inflation is sometimes needed to keep a strong dollar, but the gold standards would create major deflation periods. Too much deflation would lead to economic peril.

Also as I stated above, the gold standard has sharp decreases in the money supply, leading to economic detriment. [12] These sharp decreases will lead to economic busts.

Also some economists even say low amounts of inflation are good! [13] So if your keysian and like inflation, then a gold standard is not with you. If you think sometimes slow steady decreases in money supply are good the gold standard is not right for you.

The gold standard is hard to change, so if the economy DEMANDS a slight increase in supply the economy will halt under a gold standard as the money supply will not grow. [14] Without the flexibility of slow inflation rates or slow deflation rates the economy will suffer and have capped growth. It would lead to booms and busts, mainly busts, that are not needed and will increase economic doubt.

At 3/4/2012 11:17:41 PM, thett3 wrote:I don't support a government mandated Gold standard, because it happened and failed.

But let fiat and hard money compete, and I think it would be quite obvious which one would come out on top.

Exactly, legalize competing currencies by way of getting rid of legal tender laws.But they'll never do that because they make a percentage of every single transaction we make (except food I think?)

The USA hasn't gone as far as levying a VAT on precious metals yet, but I would get my hands on as much as possible as soon as possible. Just look around you, the whole economic system is falling apart..

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At 3/4/2012 11:17:41 PM, thett3 wrote:I don't support a government mandated Gold standard, because it happened and failed.

But let fiat and hard money compete, and I think it would be quite obvious which one would come out on top.

Exactly, legalize competing currencies by way of getting rid of legal tender laws.But they'll never do that because they make a percentage of every single transaction we make (except food I think?)

The USA hasn't gone as far as levying a VAT on precious metals yet, but I would get my hands on as much as possible as soon as possible. Just look around you, the whole economic system is falling apart..

As long as precious metals are only an investment I doubt they'll mess with any tax, however if their monopoly on money is ever circumvented, or as you mention falls apart, I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate to throw a VAT on precious metals.Also it's a good thing there isn't a precedent for confiscating precious metals from citizens or anything crazy like that...

"If you are a racist I will attack you with the north"- Abraham Lincoln

I believe it is legal to create your own currency. Ever heard of bitcoin? Legal. Ever have it where you can earn point and the points earns rewards, legal. Chuck-e-cheese tickets, that's a form of currency.

At 3/5/2012 6:40:08 PM, darkkermit wrote:I believe it is legal to create your own currency. Ever heard of bitcoin? Legal. Ever have it where you can earn point and the points earns rewards, legal. Chuck-e-cheese tickets, that's a form of currency.

Neither of those are hard currencies, no one is going to trust Chuck-E-Cheese coins or tickets.However realistic Competing currencies based on gold and silver have been shut down by the govt.

"If you are a racist I will attack you with the north"- Abraham Lincoln

At 3/5/2012 6:40:08 PM, darkkermit wrote:I believe it is legal to create your own currency. Ever heard of bitcoin? Legal. Ever have it where you can earn point and the points earns rewards, legal. Chuck-e-cheese tickets, that's a form of currency.

Neither of those are hard currencies, no one is going to trust Chuck-E-Cheese coins or tickets.However realistic Competing currencies based on gold and silver have been shut down by the govt.

The problem of liberty dollar [as has been stated so many times before] was their likeness to the US dollar there was also the issue of putting USD values upon the currency which was considered as fraud for it was an asset backed currency and hence the individual denominations which are supposed to be backed in a certain quantity value of said assets and hence the USD [$] values placed upon the coins in question did not adequately display the shifting values of gold in terms of USD.

If you want a decent medium of hard asset [which really isn't that hard unless you have copper, aluminum, iron, iridium, or other such truly useful assets] currency see shire silver or maybe you could try The Hampshire model. However The Hampshire model might as well be our current model for our currency for in order to prevent the forgery [well the making of good forgeries] of USD we make the cost of printing practically the same as the cost forgeries [its either equal/greater or the potential profits to be made are marginal at best (100 notes printed and I made 5 cents, I think I'll get a job now)] which has one key difference which is that USD is accepted everywhere, plus The Hampshire model ends up suffering from a "Free Rider" problem all of it's own which doesn't really happen in USD.

Minister Of Trolling
: At 12/6/2011 2:21:41 PM, badger wrote:
: ugly people should beat beautiful people ugly. simple! you'd be killing two birds with the one stone... women like violent men and you're making yourself more attractive, relatively. i met a blonde dude who was prettier than me not so long ago. he's not so pretty now! ha!
:
: ...and well, he wasn't really prettier than me. he just had nice hair.

At 3/5/2012 6:40:08 PM, darkkermit wrote:I believe it is legal to create your own currency. Ever heard of bitcoin? Legal. Ever have it where you can earn point and the points earns rewards, legal. Chuck-e-cheese tickets, that's a form of currency.

Neither of those are hard currencies, no one is going to trust Chuck-E-Cheese coins or tickets.However realistic Competing currencies based on gold and silver have been shut down by the govt.

The problem of liberty dollar [as has been stated so many times before] was their likeness to the US dollar there was also the issue of putting USD values upon the currency which was considered as fraud for it was an asset backed currency and hence the individual denominations which are supposed to be backed in a certain quantity value of said assets and hence the USD [$] values placed upon the coins in question did not adequately display the shifting values of gold in terms of USD.

Chuck E Cheese looks more reputable than shire silverAlso liberty dollars looked nothing like dollars and has no reference to federal reserve notes nor do they claim to be legal tender. The term "dollar" isn't unique to the federal reserve note.The federal government simply wanted to set a precedent that investing in an alternate currency will result in an FBI raid and a loss of all your assets.

"If you are a racist I will attack you with the north"- Abraham Lincoln